


closing time

by lovedeluxe



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Accidental Bonding, Gen, bro this is just the lovably pretentious young adult olympics stay tuned for the finals, postgame
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-05-27 22:15:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15034466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovedeluxe/pseuds/lovedeluxe
Summary: every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.





	closing time

**Author's Note:**

> my half of an art trade with the lovely @largejohncena! also something i’ve been wanting to write for a while anyway. you wouldn’t expect goro and tae to have much of anything in common, but in this essay, i will...

“Would you care to hear my theory?” 

The words come as cordial as they were back when he traipsed the streets with a briefcase full of right answers, but Tae notes the voice has changed. Tone, too. More accurately, she hears a boy trying on the way he used to speak, like clothes he hadn’t known how to grow into. She doesn’t look up, for fear that she’ll miss some other new detail— but she laughs for him.

“Another one? You’re really something.” Another halfhearted note on her clipboard, like she’s dabbling in psychology. “Don’t you get bored chatting with me like this? I’m not particularly engaging—“

“— I disagree.”

Now there’s a surprise. That does make her look up, in spite of herself.

“... Are you going to elaborate, or should we just submit to the awkward silence?” Goro fidgets with the gloves in his lap, lifting each individual finger rather than meet her eyes. Did he embarrass himself? She has enough sense to know he hasn’t developed a _crush,_ or something similarly asinine. So why won’t he speak?

“... I don’t impress you, but I don’t seem to disgust you, either.”

He has yet to look up when the words reach her, but by the time they’ve settled around her shoulders he’s looking her right in the face. “My accomplishments, my crimes... you care for none. You know everything about me, but you’ve never so much as commented... and you continue to grant me shelter, knowing exactly who I am. Or... perhaps _what_ I am is more accurate?” It’s Goro’s turn to laugh, but the sound is rough with disuse.

He pauses, maybe for effect. “I suppose what interests me about you... is your persistence, in spite of your disinterest. What part of you allows you to house a killer? Do you truly feel safe around me?”

It’s interesting, the way he delivers it. No melodrama, no sidestepping. It’s not a question being asked for affirmation or reassurance— no, anything she could give would be too flimsy anyway. But then, what is it that he wants?

“You’re still just a kid,” she starts off, a note of exhaustion in her voice, “so why do you have to make everything so difficult? I know you’re not interested in my pity, and I don’t have much to offer anyway. So what exactly are you trying to make me say?”

Goro stares her down, then lets himself drop on the hospital bed. “...I don’t know what I’d like to hear, to be honest. It’s connected, though. To my theory. You never agreed to listen, but will you?” That prompts a snicker from her, and a drumming of nails against her desk. “Pushy, aren’t you? That face doesn’t suit you at all.”

“My face?” Points to it with a half-smile reminiscent of his poster boy days. “Do you think I’m cute, Tae-san?”

“Don’t get excited. I’ll hear you out for—” She pretends to check the clock on her phone. “Fifteen minutes.”

He nods, relaxing further into the bed. “I’m beginning to believe in something I’ve named the ‘radius of blame.’” That sounds like the title of a comic book, and she wonders if he did it on purpose. “You see, there are people— people like me, who commit what is said to be the ultimate evil.” 

Again with the light, nearly conversational tone. Tae is relieved that she won’t need to hold him while he cries or anything like that, but she finds herself listening closer just to see what he’s getting at.

“No matter their reasons, there will forever be those who find such people irredeemable, yes? For example, if a young woman kills a man in self-defense, his family might not forgive her... even if she was being attacked by him.” Goro perks up on one hand and beams. “And then there are cases like mine, where the criminal killed of his own free will—”

“Slow down. Weren’t you being coerced?” His smile softens, but it doesn’t fade. Even now, his devotion to method acting is incredible. “I don’t know everything, but that’s what Kurusu told me. Was he wrong?”

“I certainly was, but please don’t imply that such a fact frees me of blame, Tae-san. It’s kind, but it’s fundamentally incorrect. Even in a worst-case scenario where there appears to be ‘no choice,’ there is always at least one.” Those sparkling eyes lock onto Tae’s face, waiting for her to supply the answer to his unspoken question.

For a moment it doesn’t hit her. Of course he had no choice! There was no way to opt out of the life he’d been forced into if he’d wanted to survive... but what if he hadn’t? 

“... You’re not trying to say that you should’ve let yourself die, are you, Akechi?” 

Her prize is another worryingly cheerful laugh. “No, no. I would never have chosen that— and even now, I don’t _regret_ not choosing it. That’s what makes me implicit, Tae-san; my feelings, not just my actions.”

“It feels like you’re doing laps to shoulder the blame for something you had no say in.” She taps her clipboard with her pen— an old nervous twitch. “That man... Shido is the one who told you what to do, isn’t he?”

“I carry the blame with him, Tae-san. Only what’s left of _him_ was mercifully wiped of his sense of responsibility and left to self-flagellate in a cushy corporate cell... so really, there’s only me left. But we’re veering from my point.” 

He pulls one glove back on, gaze fixed on its black palm. There are indents in the leather from how desperately he gripped the gun, the night he pointed it at the closest thing to a friend he’s ever had, but that’s not important now. Not if he closes his eyes.

“The radius of blame spans everyone who knows of the crime committed, and who committed it. Closeness with the victims sets you out on the fringes... while a bond with the killer draws you into the core, with them. This can make it difficult for either side to pass proper judgement on the deserving.”

Puzzle pieces click in Tae’s head and she reclines, mostly at ease once more. “Okay. I see what you’re getting at, but I don’t fall into your radius at all, do I?”

“You don’t. And that’s what makes your presence in my life so confusing...” Finally his grin drops, and he rests his face in his gloved hand. “Without any reason to love or to hate me, you choose neither... yet you chose to save me when Akira Kurusu brought me to you, on the brink of death. Even now, you continue to help me. Why?”

That makes her sigh again, but this time it settles into a smile. “You really are a kid, huh? My answer might piss you off, since you spend so much time in your own head— but I didn’t need a reason to save you.”

“What...? But you—“

She rolls over on her chair, raises a hand right up to his face. “Hush, boy wonder. I gave you your fifteen minutes, so give me mine.” Her free hand rolls back the sleeve of her coat, revealing a small round scar on her pale wrist— the mark of a kiss from Death.

“See this? It’s from an IV drip. Several. Hundreds, maybe. I was so frail as a child that there was only one safe spot to stick me, but they had to, so I wouldn’t drop dead.”

Goro mouths a phrase, maybe an _“I’m sorry,”_ or an _“I never knew,”_ and Tae clamps her hand over his mouth for real so she doesn’t have to hear it. “Mmph!”

“ _Fifteen,_ I said. When I was the age you were when you made that choice, I was fighting for my life, too. I chose to live, too. I don’t have any right to judge you for it.”

She releases him with that, and sees the realization she’d wanted etched into his face— the world is huge, and it’s full of people who will never know or care how either of them fought to survive. 

“I do have a question, though. Did you like killing people?”

Goro’s pretty face scrunches up into something childish for just a second, then falls flat. “... Not for a second. The only man I’ve ever wanted dead is beyond my reach, now.”

“Then you don’t need to worry about what I’m getting out of this. If you’re still human, I’m glad I saved you, and I’ll make sure you stay saved.”

“I... thank you, Tae-san.” It’s either a rare glimpse of sincerity from him, or the impression he does at parties. She’s happy either way. “If there’s anything... if there’s ever some way I can help you...”

Tae ruffles his hair. “Cut it out; all I did was my job. You think I took the oath with my fingers crossed?” Hand still on his head, she uses him as leverage to stand. “That’s mean, Tae-san...” 

“That’s me! Mean. Now grab your jacket, ‘kay? I’m sick of all this heavy talk, so we’re getting ice cream and forgetting it happened. Sound good?”

As nonchalant as she seems, a glance at the clock on the wall shows Goro that closing time was two hours ago. Had he met someone for whom caring was the default, just after he’d stopped believing they existed? He trails along behind her, feels something that had nearly died blooming in his chest. Hope, maybe, for his place in parts of the world that didn’t know him just yet.

“...Sounds perfect. Let me treat you.”

**Author's Note:**

> and scene! if anyone reads this as romantic i will face god and walk backwards into hell.


End file.
